Posts Tagged ‘blog’
February 25th, 2011 | 
Author: one story
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THE TEACHING POWER OF STORIES
Every culture has a tradition of oral storytelling. The 35,000-year-old paintings on the walls of the Lascaux Caves are our earliest recorded evidence of storytelling1, and Aesop, a 6th century BC greek slave, wrote tales which even today are used to teach moral behavior to children. Stories are a means to pass on information, values, and knowledge. They provide the structure and framework through which humans sort, understand, relate and file information.2 In short, through stories people learn about the world and themselves.
Throughout time, narrative has been the most natural and fundamental teaching method and it seems that any lesson begun with the phrase "once upon a time" rivets the attention and interest of students. Simply put, stories are how we learn. The progenitors of the world's religions understood this, handing down our great myths and legends from generation to generation3. Much research is available today to validate the powerful effect storytelling has as a teaching tool and an instrument to enhance motivation, communication and interpersonal skills.
When writing his book Story Proof: The Science Behind The Startling Power of the Story, Kendall Haven reviewed over 350 research studies and, perhaps unsurprisingly, each study agrees that stories are an effective and efficient vehicle for teaching and motivating, and for the general communication of factual information, concepts and tacit information.4 Specifically, it has been shown that material not learned within the context of a story is less likely to be retained,5, 6 whereas stories "engage us. … and help us to understand by making the abstract concrete and accessible"7. The benefits of the storytelling approach to education have been found to apply in very diverse subject areas. These include teaching literacy8, 9 mathematics,10 science11 and history to children,12 and educating professionals in such field as business13, nursing14 and adult education of foreign languages15 to name just a few.
Massachusetts based historian and folklorist, Merrill Kohlhofer uses storytelling to teach history to elementary children, both in schools across New England and at historic sites including the House of Seven Gables and the Peabody Essex Museums. According to Kohlhofer, "Stories can help make what might otherwise seem dry facts and boring, irrelevant events come alive for the listeners. Because the events and characters of stories help create an emotional connection with the listener, the ideas the story carries make a greater impact, and seem both more relevant and more easily remembered and understood. Listening to stories, participating in them, helps develop children's linguistic skills – well-crafted stories both entice and challenge the listener to love language and its communicative power and serve to model verbal art."
"I began by asking my listeners [3rd-5th graders] how many liked history – the response was pretty lukewarm. After the question and answer session with which I conclude these programs, I asked the same question – and the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. ...stories appeal to the child's verbal intelligence, not something that happens that often these days where we appear to be shifting to a more visual culture.
Stephanie Wilkins, a longtime third and fourth grade teacher at Odyssey Day School in Wakefield, MA, relies heavily on story telling in her classroom. Stephanie describes the power of story as a teaching tool stating, "Sitting and listening doesn't do it [educate]. If they are just presented with material, it goes in one ear and out the other. Role play and drama, with them making up their own skits and acting out the stories, helps the students learn to handle and utilize concepts. When kids get up and play a part they are going to learn and be more likely to remember."
Odyssey Day School builds its entire curriculum on the concept of overriding themes and stories. For example, the school -wide theme last year was Milestones: The path from yesterday to tomorrow. When Stephanie's class was studying the ancient Greeks, instead of just talking or reading about them they became part of the story. Each child researched and played a role of one of the Greek gods or goddesses. The theme was worked into all aspects of the curriculum. In science, they studied astronomy. In math, they learned about the algorithm and how the Greeks used stars to tell time, while in Art they were making sculptures and dioramas of ancient Greek Columns.
Stephanie expounds on the fact that storytelling not only enhances academic knowledge, but "fosters interrelationships between the kids. When they don't even realize it, they are learning to step out of their own comfort zones and recognize similarities and differences in others, learning from their ideas. They learn to compliment, cooperate, communicate, plan, organize and they learn to listen. The story is not just about me presenting the material, it is a spring board for discussion for asking questions for probing further. It brings it [the teaching] full circle."
Another place where storytelling is still growing strong and aiding the development of self-esteem, creativity, and team cooporation is at Guard Up Family Swordmanship in Burlington, MA. Guard Up runs summer camps, after-school and weekend programing based on interactive story telling and role-playing with an emphasis on teaching the values of good sportsmanship, teamwork, compassion, honor and courage. Guard Up really brings the story to life through role-playing which is a means of merging the power of stories with the benefits of active learning17. Children of all ages are fully immersed in medieval fantasy stories designed to entertain and educate. The story lines change and adapt based on the behavior of and choices made by the kids. The broad story arcs are planned in advance by a team of counsellors, and evolve daily. Campers, as a group, devise strategies, find solutions, and choose their course of action whether defending their city from an invasion of living puppets, or negotiating a peace agreement with a horde of scurvy pirates.
We interviewed four of the Guard Up councelors, Chris, Lauren, Hannah and Joseph, to find out what inspired them, how they utilize the stories as a tool to impart knowledge and some of the surprising paths the stories took based on the actions of the campers, or Heros, as they are called. They recognize that storytelling is a co-creative process. Although there is a general story arc the counselors know the importance of letting the plot flow in the direction that the kids take. As Joseph explains, "We can't plan the specific details because it depends on the decisions of the kids. We change the plot based on what the characters are doing." Lauren agrees "You want to take it where they take it. You don't want to be so stuck to the plot. You want them to figure it out and feel excited." Guard up gives the kids the opportunity to design their own reality or as Joseph putt "the kids get to live their dreams". They design their characters and have a chance to be who they want to be and try out new things. Many of them choose positive attributes and get rewarded for playing them. On the other hand, if a camper decides to, say, fight her own team mates, she learns consequences within the game which makes her not want to do it in the future.
The motto of Guard Up is "courage, honor and compassion. " Chris, another Guard Up instructor describes how the heros are given many opportunities to choose to display these attributes, such as the option to help other people without getting anything for themselves. Once, for example, when a village was attacked by monsters, the campers stayed by the side of a shopkeeper, protecting her and even giving her their own healing potions when she was injured. When recollecting this tale, Hannah reflects that "these are the real teaching moments".
Whether participating in adventure at the summer camp, after-school programs, or weekly classes and activities, the children are, as Lauren says, "learning without even knowing they are doing it". Some knowledge is applicable in the academic sense, for example they learned basic anatomy during a quest to reassemble the body of their village's mayor - including his nervous system - or utilized mathematics and deductive logic to answer riddles, figure out clues and solve puzzles. Additionally, history is incorporated both through mythology and true historical figures and settings.
Beyond gaining academic knowledge, they are also learning about themselves, social interaction, values and morals. Getting to be the hero they always wanted to be helps them gain confidence. The emphasis on honor, courage and compassion flows through all of the activities. For instance, when they were on the quest to "re-assemble the mayor" they needed to prove they were true of heart before they could retrieve the heart. As Hannah so aptly put it, "We teach kids social skills by letting them explore outlandish possibilities. They find the boundaries of their personality in a safe environment". They learn how to work together, negotiate, treat others with compassion, and attempt to solve issues through analytic skills instead of aggression. It also gives them a chance to express their emotions, creativity and imagination.
When we first interviewed the campers, many stated that the characters they designed were more creative than they, themselves were. When shown the paradox that they had designed their characters and that all of the character's actions were coming from their own minds, one camper, Connor, stated enthusiastically, "If you come here I bet you'll find out that you're more creative than you think and that you have more talent than you notice." When asked, Connor and his fellow campers, Travis, Casey and Ethan offered many different lessons learned, including:
"Sometimes, you can have the best adventures where you don't do war - do politeness first"
"Honor the game, be truthful, help others, and always try manners before violence. "
"Teamwork and thinking about problem-solving can help in the real world."
"The choices you make can really effect what goes on around you."
Storytelling, besides being perhaps the oldest method of teaching, still plays a vital role in child development. When schools are becoming focused on teaching to standardized tests, it is more important than ever that children still have a way of learning through imagination and participation. If parents are willing to look, there are still great opportunities for children to benefit from this timeless teaching method. Have you spun a story for your kids today?
Resources
Guard Up Family Swordmanship
103 Terrace Hall Ave
Burlington, MA 01803
(781) 270-4800
http://guardup.com/
Odyssey Day School
11 Paul Avenue
Wakefield, MA 01880-2604
(781) 245-6050
http://www.odysseydayschool.org/
Professional Story Tellers
Merrill Kohlhofer
http://www.merrillstories.com/
Laura Packard
http://www.laurapacker.com/lp/
Storytelling websites
http://www.storyteller.net/
http://www.courses.unt.edu/efiga/STORYTELLING/StorytellingWebsites.htm
http://www.storyconnection.net/?content=links
http://www.prattlibrary.org/home/storyIndex.aspx
References
1 http://www.essortment.com/all/historystorytel_tukm.htm August 19, 2010
2 Schank, Roger C. (1990) Tell me a story: A new look at real and artificial memory. New York, NY: Charles Scribner.
3 Mooney, Bill & Holt, David. (1996) The storytellers guide. Little Rock, AK: August House Inc.
4 Haven, Kendall (2007) Story proof: the science behind the startling power of story. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
5 Mandler, J. M. (1984). Stories, scripts, and scenes: Aspects of schema theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
6Mandler, J. M., & Johnson, N. S. (1977). Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111-151.
7Noddings, N. & Witherell, C. (1991). Epilogue: Themes remembered and foreseen. In C. Stories lives tell: Narrative and Dialogue in Education (pp. 279-280). New York:Teachers College Press.
8Well, G. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
9 Wells, C.G. (1985). Preschool literacy-related activities and success in school. In D. Olson, N. Torrance, and A. Hildyard. (Eds.), Literacy, language, and learning: The nature and consequences of literacy (pp. 229–255). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
10O'Neill, D. K., Pearce, M. J., & Pick, J. L. (2004). Preschool children's narratives and performance on the Preschool Individual Achievement Test-Revised: Evidence of a relation between early narrative and later mathematical ability. First Language, 24(2), 149-183.
11 Kokkotas, P., Malamitsa, K., & Rizaki, A. (2008). Storytelling as a Strategy for Understanding Concepts of electricity and Electromagnetism. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Story in Science Teaching. Munich, Germany
12 Watts, Julie E. (2006) Benefits of Storytelling Methodologies In 4th and 5th Grade Historical Instruction. A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction East Tennessee State University.
13Snowden, David (1999). Story telling: an old skill in a new context. Business Information Review March; 16 (1), 30-37.
14Geanellos, R. (1996). Story telling: a teaching-learning technique. Contemporary Nurse March; 5 (1), 28-35.
15Uddin, Rukhsana, Ph.D. (2009). Implementing counseling techniques: Role play and storytelling in teaching second language vocabulary to adult second language learners. University of Minnesota.
About the Author
Eve Kennedy-Spaien, OTR/L is an Occupational Therapist and Clinical Supervisor at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Network in Medford, MA. She has over 20 years of experience working with adolescents and adults with physical, cognitive and psychosocial impairments.
Kevin Kennedy-Spaien is the President and Owner of Disc of light Media. He is a musician, audio production engineer, and professional blogger and podcaster.
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Lighting: Picture light Technology Integrates Style and Art Lighting
We know art lighting inside out, and picture lights are definitely IN. While picture lights are often found in hotels, restaurants and other toney public places, more frequently these days you will find picture lights hard at work in elegant homes. Many homes have framed art or treasured family photos (whether they be framed and matted photographs of the “ancestors” or the wedding pix, the graduations, prom date photos, vacation memories, the grand kids, etc.). Of course what you put on your walls, like every other décor choice you make, makes an important statement. Once your art is on the walls, art lighting helps add tonality, richness and focus on your art but also can add softness and glimmer to the room.
Christmas and gift giving occasions are often times when family portraits are given as gifts, in frames. Not as many of these framed portraits come with a picture light, but why not? Or if the picture was given as a gift last year, already framed, why not add to it by giving the picture light this year?
An art light adds a lot to your home. Just as any quality lighting fixture adds polish and presence to the room, these picture lite beauties are shining stars day or night, on or off. When designers look at rooms from the point of view of lighting picture light and the artwork it illuminates are great finishing touches. The fine finishes available in House of Troy picture lights are renowned for their constancy, quality and hand burnished beauty. Our daughter goes for the hand-rubbed mahogany bronze finish all through her home, whether big lights or small picture lights. The constancy adds immeasurably to the unity of her design and the wholeness of the house.
Perfect picture lighting can be somewhat of an art in itself – you can try an LED picture light which will provide a different tonality of lighting than incandescent or fluorescent. The technology House of Troy has invested in to design optimum, conservation quality LED arrays for their slim-line model picture lights allows for super bright LED light, perfectly angled towards the artwork. My very favorite art light is the SLED20-71, a slim-line style shade that is 20” long, with an LED array. The reason I love this lamp so much is that the style of the lamp is antique brass, the line of the lamp is so sleek and yet so timeless, and the technology is energy efficient, light-years ahead, LED light at its finest.
If you are a traveling artist, say with craft shows or community artist gatherings, be sure to check out the battery picture lights that are just coming into their own, with their own breakthrough technologies that allow for superior light and longer battery life. The hugely popular AB7-61 is a polished brass Advent picture light with a 7” shade. Another popular picture lite is the RT8-1, an 8” shade in a smoothly painted gold finish. If you value a picture light whose batteries last for 45 hours, try the ABF14-71 – it uses a fluorescent bulb and not only does it not get warm, it casts a remarkable white pure light.
So consider a picture light when you upgrade your environs. Energy efficient art lighting can serve multiple purposes when you are looking to add layers of light to your home.
About the Author
http://www.perfectpicturelighting.com/
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Outstanding Off-Season Best Deals And Packages In Shimla
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Nestled amidst the famous hill station Shimla, Cottages designed for the needs of today’s modern traveller, these cottages are available with outstanding accommodation, conference facility and kids’ activity area. Attracting several tourists and travellers for years, it provides a majestic view of the picturesque beauty of the place. Various adventure sports such as river rafting, trekking, skiing, mountain biking, fishing, paragliding etc. are organized frequently, which attracts the adventure lovers.
Located at an altitude of 2,421 meters above sea level, Shimla is known as the fruit sink of India. It treasures some of the famous tourist destinations namely- Chamba, Mashobra, Naldehra, Dalhousie, Kinnaur, Kullu, etc. The magnificent landscape of lush green valleys, cold desert mountains, snow clad peaks, vineyards, orchards, etc Moreover the hotels in shimla are best suited for families and honeymooners and offer a pleasant stay. The marigold cottages offer excellent travel desks, room service, adventure trips etc. that showcases maximum benefit at minimum expense. The fresh, cosy and hygienic ambiance adds to its grandeur. Various recreational activities at the marigold cottages rejuvenate the mind and soul. Wide assortment of eclectic food and sumptuous dishes are offered at these resorts. The hotels with budget oriented rooms and Shimla off-season packages & best deals, gains heavy influx of foreign tourists all the year round. Providing a warm welcome to the visitors, such resorts located in the milieu of misty hills and breathtaking landscapes are an abode of harmony and calmness.
About the Author
For More Details on Hotels in Delhi, Hotels in Manali, Leh Ladakh Tour Packages Visit www.silentplanet.in
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Have fun with your bedroom design – choose the right headboard and off you go!
Many people say that the kitchen is the heart of the home but here at Headboards UK, we would disagree. Your bedroom is undoubtedly the most important room in your house. It is the last room you see at night, and the first room you wake up to as you face each new day. Your bedroom is where you rest, rejuvenate and relax. It is where you retreat from the world and recharge yourself. We all know about the dreadful accumulative affects of poor sleep or insomnia. Feeling comfortable and happy in your bedroom is always beneficial.
Your bedroom should reflect your personality and your changing taste. A headboard is the focal point of any bedroom. Once you have chosen the headboard that you like, decorating and lighting the rest of the room to compliment it becomes easy and enjoyable. The range of headboards available these days is truly vast. Not only are there the widest range of materials and styles available to suit every taste, there are headboards available to reflect and represent the style of a particular decade, era city or landscape.
Your choice of headboard can create a strong design statement, improving the look and feel of your bedroom. A headboard is usually the most eye catching piece of furniture and décor in the room, making it an ideal focal point. Your tastes change with time, and a new headboard is an ideal way of experimenting with design. You may want to have the latest, most modern bedroom décor, or you may have a specific period of time or particular decade that you want to recapture. The headboard of your choosing can make your bedroom unique, and will create the focal point from which you can design the rest of the room.
The décor and style of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Elizabethan period, the Napoleonic Era, the Victorian and Edwardian periods, the Art Deco and even the Space Age or the more modern periods can be tastefully and authentically captured by a carved wood or metal headboard. Wood and metal are the traditional material for furnishings, and have been since the dawn of time. A wooden or metal headboard is a classic design statement, which you can individualise by choosing the exact design which appeals to you.
In addition to the plethora of design possibilities for metal and wooden headboards, upholstered headboards offer a comfortable and exciting headboard option. These headboards offer you the opportunity to affordably redecorate your bedroom on a whim. All you will need is the cloth of your choice and a staple gun.
Your bedroom should reflect your style and the right headboard will allow you to do just that. The headboard you choose and perhaps later customise will be the focal point for the bedroom, creating instant effect, mood and style. Exactly the right headboard is out there, whatever your preferred style. Whether you are designing a bedroom for your child, yourself or any favourite person, go on, indulge yourself!
About the Author
Mike Stephenson is the owner of the UK based company
Headboards UK. Specializing in retail Bed Headboards since 2001
Bed Frames UK Specializing in retail Bed Frames since 2001
Loungearound Beds & Suites. Specializing in retail furniyure since 2001
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Way to Watch House Online Free
House (also identified as home, MD) is a television series American Medical, which started on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The plan was designed by Paul Attanasio and David Shore, Shore is credited because the creator. central character from the indicate is Dr. Gregory Home (Hugh Laurie), a maverick genius and misanthropic physician who heads a group of diagnosticians at the fictional.
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The original premise of your show with Attanasio, while Cote is principally responsible for designing the title character. government producers of the present shorebirds, Attanasio, Attanasio Katie Jacobs enterprise accomplice, and director Bryan Singer. It was largely filmed in Century Metropolis.
Dr. Home is frequently met along with his boss (and later, the girlfriend), hospital administrator and dean of medicine Lisa Cuddy Dr. (Lisa Edelstein) and his team of analysis due to the fact quite a few of its assumptions about the disease sufferers are depending on refined or controversial viewpoints. Home only real friend is Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), head of oncology. During the very first 3 seasons, the group diagnose the Chamber consists of Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps). In the end of the 3rd season, the group dissolves. Joined by Foreman, House progressively selects three new members: Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn). Kutner has published with the collection towards the finish of season 5. Chase and Cameron continued to seem in various roles in the hospital just before the begin of season six. Cameron left the sequence, Chase and returns on the diagnostic group.
House is acclaimed by critics and has high ratings. He was amongst the high 10 rated shows within the United States his second in his fourth season in the 2008-09 season, he fell to nineteenth general. Distributed in sixty six nations, the Home was the plan most watched television within the world in 2008. The present has obtained many awards such as a People's Option Awards, a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards and 4 Primetime Emmy Awards. seventh season with the Trial Chamber, 20 September 2010.
In 2004, David Shore, Paul Attanasio and with Attanasio Katie Jacobs organization associate, started the view (untitled on the time) at Fox as being a healthcare detective program CSI-style, a fleece hospital exactly where medical practitioners examined signs and their leads to. Attanasio was inspired to create a pleading by medical column inside the New York Times Journal "Diagnosis", published by the doctor Lisa Sanders. Fox purchased the series, but then the community president, Gail Berman, stated the inventive team, "I want a health-related exhibit, but I do not want to see white coats, that are inside the corridor." Jacobs stated that this provision was one of quite a few influences that led towards the closing form of the display.
About the Author
Watch House is a television series American Medical, which began on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. Watch House Online is critically acclaimed and has high viewership ratings.